Emerald Spire 11.0 - Zdislav's Lair
Walking down yet another winding passage into the deep, the group found themselves in a foyer lit by permanent magical lamps fixed into the walls. Heavy machine noises, like clockwork, reverberated through the walls. An alcove around a bend seemed strange, and upon investigation, they found that it was a rotating junction controlled by a lever in the entryway. With the goal of finding the spire without engaging Zdislav, they decided to explore. Taking the rightmost door, which was emblazoned with an emblem featuring a golem like Clanky and the shark robot, Marin came face to face with a minotaur that appeared to have bronze plating grafted to its skin. The group fought the crazed being off, knocking it out and taking its meager belongings. Deciding to leave it alive and finding its room barren, they moved on. The next room was filled with broken mechanical junk which two spindly robots were sorting through. The group handily destroyed them both. Though there was a door in the junk room, they chose instead to heading back to the original junction where they took the lefthand door. They found themselves in a trophy room. One of the displays had been trapped but they avoided it and claimed a very nice sword for Kormon. A hidden door panel nearby led to a hall where the clockwork noise became louder. Deciding that it was likely that Zdislav worked at the floor's centre where the noise was coming from, and that they had never seen the spire anywhere but on the periphery of these subterranean floors, they turned back before opening the far door. Heading north from the treasure room brought them to a hall. The first door seemed to be a jail, left unguarded. An unconscious man was locked in a cell, and they couldn't rouse him from a distance. Breaking in through the bars, they found that Amara recognized the prisoner as Jhard, one of the acolytes she had been sent to find. Rousing him with magic, the grateful man explained that he and Tiana had been captured by Zdislav some weeks ago, but Tiana had escaped. She had promised to get help, but she could only escape deeper into the spire and hadn't returned. He had been beaten and starved, and thanked them for the rescue. Now that it was even more vital to find the spire, they continued on. They found a hidden back entrance into Zdislav's personal chambers, where they robbed him of a safe, a collection of spellbooks, a journal, and, thanks to Ismail, most of his fine wardrobe. The journal was filled with notes regarding machine design, the dungeon floors surrounding the spire that they were already familiar with, and many long tirades and plans regarding the downfall of the government and the installation of himself as overlord of the region. Moving on, they found a bathroom down the hall, where a bitter Ismail relieved Zdislav of a bath robe, as well as the magic coal he appeared to use to heat his water. At the end of the hall, they found an audience chamber where two robots loomed on either side of a throne, sitting in front of a mural of the same golem emblem. In the corner shone the spire. With a plan to meet on the second floor, the group rushed the room. Marin, Kormon and Ismail held off the aggressive robots while Amara teleported Jahrd to the second floor. She returned seconds later, and she grabbed Marin while Ismail grabbed Kormon, taking all of them to the fifth floor where they hoped to collect their abandoned belongings. Once there, the group found Ismail's centipede, overjoyed to be reunited with his undead master. In the closet, however, they found a fish-like woman picking through their things. She looked up and greeted them, and Marin recognized her voice as that of Dayana, the friendly one he had met earlier. She returned their belongings as asked, but Marin cut any other conversation short, not wanting to linger with the big-mouthed ally of the unfriendly Jaquarl and Senethar. Teleporting to the second floor, they regrouped with Jhard, and prepared to head back to Fort Inevitable. Category:Emerald Spire